Goochland wants to place all future data centers near the Henrico border, prompting public pushback

Goochland County Administrator Jeremy Raley knew many of the speakers at a Nov. 10 community meeting, calling on them by name. It may be because the rural county has a small population where everyone knows just about everyone.

It may also be because dozens of those speakers have been to many county meetings before to voice the same complaint: “We don’t want data centers near our homes.”

Since Nov. 6, 2025, when the Goochland Board of Supervisors adopted the five-mile Technology Overlay District, Goochland and Henrico residents have fought against the county’s plans to attract data center developers to the site, which is less than a mile from several Goochland and Western Henrico neighborhoods.

Now, Goochland leaders are proposing several ordinance amendments that would prohibit data centers outside of the TOD but allow data centers by-right, meaning no public approval process would be required, in the northern and central areas of the TOD – the areas closest to Western Henrico.

At Tuesday’s community meeting in Goochland, Raley said that the east end of the county was designated as a prime economic zone decades ago through multiple comprehensive plans and rezonings. Data centers were first brought into the conversation in August 2024, he said, and Eastern Goochland had the necessary infrastructure – public water and sewer, roadways, fiber-optic cable, and proposed transmission lines – to support the hyperscale centers.

But with that infrastructure, Eastern Goochland also has thousands of residents, and is just across the creek from Henrico’s highly-populated Short Pump area, which contains about 28,000 homes and 10 schools just a few miles from the TOD.

Goochland supervisors approved the Mosaic 55+ community and Readers Branch neighborhood in the east end through rezonings in 2018 – well before hyperscale data centers were brought into the public conversation, residents said.

“The county approved our community. It cannot now treat that community as an afterthought in determining the future of the surrounding land,” said Arnold Rosenberg, a Mosaic resident. “What the hell has changed since 2018 that now makes high-intensity development immediately adjacent to Mosaic adjacent with those same principles?”

Goochland leaders also said the proposed amendments would establish and strengthen a number of protections for residents near the TOD: enforcing 300-500 foot setbacks and 250 foot buffers, setting noise limits of 55dBA and 65 dBC, and requiring data centers to use public water and sewer unless the property already has an adequate supply.

But residents pointed out a number of statements in the amendments that could be seen as “loopholes.” Under the proposed changes, noise limits would not apply to “sounds created by construction, [diesel] generators operating during an emergency, or generator testing.”

“No limit or measure during construction is absolutely not acceptable,” said Courtney Dare, a Western Henrico resident. “These projects are five, seven, 10 years of construction. That is too big of an impact and too long of a span to not have any reasonable protections or measurements to protect families.”

TOD standards would also supersede any provisions of the underlying zoning district, “regardless of whether the TOD provision is more restrictive or less restrictive.” 

While no data centers have been formally approved, two big-name developers, Tract and Google, have indicated interest in building hyperscale data centers within the TOD. Tract has completed a pre-application for a Conditional Use Permit to build a 900-megawatt data center in “TOD West,” nearby Mosaic. Google has expressed interest in building a 1,200-megawatt data center in “TOD Central” alongside Western Henrico, which would be approved by-right if the project moves forward.

Just two weeks ago, it was revealed that Google was the developer considering a 1,200-megawatt data center campus in the TOD through an unsealed non-disclosure agreement; prior to the release of the NDA, the developer was not named publicly.

Several Goochland residents said they felt “deceived” by county leaders when the news broke. 

In an exchange with Goochland Deputy County Administrator Sara Worley, one Goochland resident questioned county leaders about their transparency with constituents.

“On July 7, 2025, at the community meeting for the TOD, it is reported that you had stated that there were no NDAs with data centers in effect at that time. We now have information that has been released not for one, but for two – Tract and Google,” said the resident. “This is an opportunity to explain why that statement was said, when I can see that the NDAs were very much in effect at that time.”

“We talk to a lot of projects – a lot of projects come, a lot of projects go. I signed an NDA, and then the project went away. In my mind, when that question was asked in July: ‘Do I have active data center projects?’ The answer in my mind was no,” said Worley. “I had not talked to the projects in months…In my mind, they were dead projects. Yes, there [were] two NDA sitting on the shelf. Did not remember them. In my mind, they did not exist.”

“But at this time, do you understand the truth is that an NDA doesn’t work that way? That it is still a legal binding agreement and at that moment in time, it [was] still in effect? Do you?” the resident said. “I believe you, but what I’m looking for [from] the county is when we’re wrong, just say we’re wrong…Just say you’re wrong.”

Some residents said that despite assurances from leaders on the stronger protections provided by the amendments, they felt that the changes were only doubling down on data center development near homes in Eastern Goochland.

“Based on the presentation tonight, it seems things are getting worse instead of better,” said Mosaic resident Ann Kent. “What makes a massive hyperscale data center compatible with residential living less than 500 feet away?...We bought our homes, put down roots, and planned our futures here. And now we find ourselves fighting to protect the very neighborhoods that you approved.”

Residents will have another opportunity to speak at the Goochland Planning Commission’s public hearing on Dec. 16. If the proposed amendments go forward, the Goochland Board of Supervisors is expected to hold a public hearing and a vote in February.

Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s government and education reporter. Support her work and articles like this one by making a contribution to the Citizen.